$53 million redevelopment of ex-steel mill in suburban Detroit gets $2.2 million from Michigan

Michigan announced Tuesday that it is providing $2.2 million in incentives for an Ohio company's planned $53 million redevelopment of a former Detroit-area steel mill.

The funding is for the Ferrous CAL Co. project. The Cleveland-based company bought the former McLouth Steel in Gibraltar and says it plans to make steel for automakers and other customers at the 42 ½-acre site.

The plant will anneal steel, a process that involves heating it to increase its strength.

"This is a terrific reuse of an inactive steel plant, and the jobs are most certainly welcome," Wayne County Commissioner Joseph Palamara said when details of the project were announced in April. "The cleanup also is very good news because of the environmentally sensitive nature of the area due to the refuge, the Detroit River, marshes and other wetlands."

The state Department of Environmental Quality said the money goes to the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority for cleanup work. It includes $1 million Clean Michigan Initiative Brownfield Redevelopment loan, $1 million Revitalization Revolving loan and $245,000 Clean Michigan Initiative grant.

The company says it's creating more than 100 new jobs.

"The benefits of turning around an underutilized property into a state-of-the-art line to create advanced high-strength steel and ultra-high-strength steel to be used in the auto industry will not only increase property tax and economic benefits of business develop and create jobs, it will address contamination on the property and prevent exposure to materials hazardous to human health, safety, and the environment," Lloyd Jackson, spokesman for Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, told the Detroit Free Press in April.